TWO new professors have been appointed by Huddersfield University.

Dr Helen Masson has become a professor of social work and Dr Michael Russ a professor of music.

The position of professor is only conferred when a person’s research is considered to be substantial, innovative and of high quality and is acknowledged nationally and internationally for its importance by fellow academics.

In 2002, Dr Russ joined the University of Huddersfield as head of the Department of Music after almost 30 years with the University of Ulster where he was head of Media and Performing Arts.

He has subsequently taken on a wider role as an Associate Dean of the School of Music, Humanities And Media at Huddersfield.

He says he feels privileged to continue to play a leading role in ensuring the success of what is possibly the largest and most diverse university music department in the United Kingdom.

He has a national reputation, not only for his academic research, but also for his work for organisations such as Palatine, the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Dance, Drama and Music, on whose management board he served from 2000 to 2006.

He was also twice elected to the committee of the National Association for Music in Higher Education.

Dr Masson, a founder member of the Centre for Applied Childhood Studies in the School of Human and Health Sciences, originally studied sociology at Nottingham University.

Following social work training at the same institution, she worked as a social worker and senior practitioner in London before joining Huddersfield University in 1976 as a lecturer in social work.

Since then, Helen has undertaken leadership roles in the development and delivery of innovative and very highly rated under-graduate and postgraduate courses for social workers, as well as leading the social work team to an ‘excellent’ rating in the 1994 Higher Education Funding Council for England teaching assessment exercise.

Since the early 1990s, she has forged an international reputation in research into policy and practice development in relation to young people who are sexually abused, publishing widely and acting as a consultant to various Government and other organisations.